Privacy Statement

Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement sets out Hutchinson Legal’s policy with respect to the way in which we obtain, use and disclose information obtained from you, including through our website at www.hutchinsonlegal.com.au.

Hutchinson Legal is committed to protecting the information we obtain from you and is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) set out in the Privacy Act 1998 and the amendments thereto contained in the Privacy (Private Sector) Act 2000.

Collection of Personal Information

The types of information generally collected by Hutchinson Legal include your name, address, mobile and telephone numbers, facsimile number and e-mail address and such other information we deem as Personal Information. Any such Personal Information is collected in the course of the services that we provide for you. Personal Information may also be collected when you provide business cards or other documentation.

Personal Information is obtained in many ways including by:

  • correspondence;
  • telephone;
  • email;
  • via our website www.hutchinsonlegal.com.au;
  • from other publicly available sources; and
  • from third parties.

When you visit this website, we may make a record of your visit. The following information may be logged for statistical purposes:

  • Your Internet protocol (IP) address;
  • The date and time of your visit to the site;
  • The pages you have accessed and documents downloaded; and
  • The type of browser you were using.

Use & Disclosure of Personal Information

Hutchinson Legal collects information from people for the primary purpose of providing assistance to them. Individuals who telephone or write to Hutchinson Legal may supply personal information. Hutchinson Legal will not use or disclose the information for another purpose unless the person has consented, or we are permitted by law.

In addition, where we reasonably determine it to be appropriate, we may add your name, address, mobile and telephone numbers, facsimile number and e-mail address and/or social media details to our database. The database may be used for ongoing marketing and educative purposes. If we elect to retain such Personal Information, you have our commitment to your privacy.

Your Personal Information is used for related and other purposes including:

1.    To deliver the services you have requested (for example, to provide you advice in respect of the legal query that you have raised).

2.    When dealing with other parties in relation to your matter (for example, to provide such information in court proceedings).

3.    To maintain, manage and further develop our relationships with clients.

4.    We may forward periodic communications to you that contain information on legal issues that we think you will find interesting. If at any stage you decide you do not wish to receive such communications, please let us know by contacting us and we will ensure that your name is removed from the relevant list.

5.    To make our website more user friendly. In order to provide a better service to our users, we may use the data collected to analyse how our sites are used so that we can improve the layout and information available on our website.

6.    For business and social events.

7.    For maintaining and managing our insurance policies.

8.    For engaging third parties in relation to debt recovery matters including debts owed by you or associated entities to Hutchinson Legal.

9.    We DO NOT rent or sell your personal information to third parties.

We may disclose your Personal Information to third parties for the purpose of providing our services, including the following third parties:

• your authorised representatives in connection with providing you with our services;

• barristers;

• your professional advisors such as accountants, financial planners, lawyers and auditors;

• software providers including cloud storage programs;

• document providers;

• service providers that assist us to carry out our administration and legal functions and activities and process client work (“Service Providers”);

• insurance companies;

• financial institutions, including for the purpose of procuring finance for your investments where you have requested us to do so; and

• regulatory and government bodies.

Some of our Service Providers and third parties, to whom we may disclose your Personal Information, may be located overseas. When you provide your Personal Information to us, you consent to the disclosure of such information to an overseas recipient. You hereby acknowledge that we are not required to ensure that the overseas recipient deals with Personal Information in the same manner as required in the APPs. However, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your Personal Information is dealt with in a way that is consistent with or at least substantially similar to the way the APPs protect information.

Removal from Lists

You can unsubscribe from receiving promotional material by e-mailing us at office@hutchinsonlegal.com.au and asking to be removed from the mailing list. Alternatively, you can mail a request asking for deletion. Our contact details are set out below.

Access to Your Personal Information

If you wish to view the Personal Information we hold about you, please send your request by e-mail to office@hutchinsonlegal.com.au, or by mail to the contact details at the end of this Statement. If you wish to amend that information because it is out of date or incorrect, or if you wish your Personal Information to be deleted from our database, please e-mail office@hutchinsonlegal.com.au.

In certain circumstances, we may refuse to give you access to the personal information that is requested by you or may charge you a fee for any such access in accordance with the APPs guidelines in the Privacy Act. We shall inform you of our decision and reasons for any refusal of your request.

Security

Hutchinson Legal uses all reasonable endeavours to secure any Personal Information that we hold about you and to keep this information accurate and up to date. However, with the exception of our client portal, this site does not provide facilities for the secure transmission of information across the Internet. Visitors should be aware that there are inherent risks transmitting information across the Internet.

When emailing Personal Information to us please be aware that there are risks involved in transmitting such information across the Internet. Our website contains links to other websites. We have no control over and take no responsibility for the privacy practices employed at other websites.

Complaints

Hutchinson Legal welcomes your questions and comments regarding this Statement. If you have any suggestions as to how we may improve our Privacy Statement, or if you are of the view we have not adhered to this Statement or the handling of your personal information, please contact us using the contact details below. If necessary, we may ask you to provide your complaint in written form. We will investigate the matter and determine the course of action (if any) needed to resolve the complaint and notify you of the decision as soon as practicable, usually within 30 days.

Personal Information of job applicants

We collect and store personal information provided by individuals who apply for employment with the firm. The information we may collect includes but not limited to:

  • personal contact details and gender;
  • educational and employment history, and relevant qualifications and employment history;
  • eligibility to work in Australia; and
  • referees’ contact details.

Such information can be obtained from the applicant or from a third party such as a recruitment agency, referees and from professional sites such as LinkedIn. Further information can be collected from the applicant at any stage of the interview process.

The purpose of obtaining such personal information from an applicant is to assess their ability and qualifications in relation to a particular role within the firm. However, we may retain the applicant’s personal information to assess their eligibility for other roles and will not disclose such information to a third party.

Sharing of Personal Data

We may use third party apps and software in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimize this service and experience. These may include features to understand our users’ experience such as how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc. This enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback.

These third-party apps and software may use cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices. This includes a device’s IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location, and the preferred language used to display our website. This information may be stored by these third parties.

Changes to the Statement

We reserve the right to alter this statement from time to time. We will use our best endeavours to notify you about the changes and updates made to our Privacy Policy on our website. We highly encourage you to visit our website on a regular basis to ensure that you understand our Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Statement was last updated on 11 December 2023.

Contact Details

Hutchinson Legal 38 New Street Ringwood Vic 3134
Telephone No: (+61 3) 9870 9870
Facsimile No: (+61 3) 9870 5704
Email: office@hutchinsonlegal.com.au